CUME_DIST calculates the cumulative distribution of a value in a group of values. The range of values returned by CUME_DIST is >0 to <=1. Tie values always evaluate to the same cumulative distribution value.

This function takes as arguments any numeric data type or any nonnumeric data type that can be implicitly converted to a numeric data type. Oracle Database determines the argument with the highest numeric precedence, implicitly converts the remaining arguments to that data type, makes the calculation, and returns NUMBER.

As an aggregate function, CUME_DIST calculates, for a hypothetical row r identified by the arguments of the function and a corresponding sort specification, the relative position of row r among the rows in the aggregation group. Oracle makes this calculation as if the hypothetical row r were inserted into the group of rows to be aggregated over. The arguments of the function identify a single hypothetical row within each aggregate group. Therefore, they must all evaluate to constant expressions within each aggregate group. The constant argument expressions and the expressions in the ORDERBY clause of the aggregate match by position. Therefore, the number of arguments must be the same and their types must be compatible.

As an analytic function, CUME_DIST computes the relative position of a specified value in a group of values. For a row r, assuming ascending ordering, the CUME_DIST of r is the number of rows with values lower than or equal to the value of r, divided by the number of rows being evaluated (the entire query result set or a partition).

Aggregate Example

The following example calculates the cumulative distribution of a hypothetical employee with a salary of $15,500 and commission rate of 5% among the employees in the sample table oe.employees:

SELECT CUME_DIST(15500, .05) WITHIN GROUP
(ORDER BY salary, commission_pct) "Cume-Dist of 15500"
FROM employees;
Cume-Dist of 15500
------------------
.972222222

Analytic Example

The following example calculates the salary percentile for each employee in the purchasing division. For example, 40% of clerks have salaries less than or equal to Himuro.